Davis, Ferrell highlight skills competitions at Hoosier Hysteria

In between the different skills competitions Friday evening in Assembly Hall for Hoosier Hysteria, highlights from the 2012-13 flashed quickly across the jumbo-tron.

The crowd, which filled the entire bottom bowl of the arena, plus a few spots up in the balcony level, roared for each made jumper, block or slam dunk, but the most popular highlights made evident just what the IU men’s basketball team will miss this season.

The defense Cody Zeller provided during the waning moments against Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich., to capture the Big Ten regular season title.

Victor Oladipo’s clutch jumper during the closing seconds to seal a win against Temple in the Round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament.

Both appeared separately on the screen during breaks in the action Friday night to talk about what their time in Bloomington had meant to them. IU Athletics even dressed two IU fans in the jerseys of the No. 2 and No. 4 picks from this past summer’s NBA Draft to shoot prayers from half-court – both of which barely flew to the free-throw line.

Minus an Oladipo vocal performance, the Hoosiers got the crowd into it early, as several players gathered at center court donning white stunner shades to perform a choreographed version of the “Stanky Leg.” The rest gathered after to join in on Soulja Boy anthem and Daniel Weber and Brice Fox’s “This is Indiana” brought the fan base in Assembly Hall to a roar.

In one of the biggest surprises of the night, IU Coach Tom Crean took the mic and began to reflect on that past season, his team’s accomplishments and the road of four seasons prior it took to get to a Big Ten title and a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Then, the lights dimmed, and a banner signifying the team’s conference regular season title – the first new banner in Assembly Hall since 2002 - rose to the rafters just above the north basket.

“You don’t buy Big Ten championships at Walmart. You earn them,” Crean said. “We just worked for five-straight years for you to hang a banner in Assembly Hall.”

The 3-point competition followed Crean’s presentation – the place where IU fans found out last season that Zeller had the potential to be a threat from beyond the arc. Five players from each of the men’s and women’s teams faced off in preliminary rounds, where guards sophomore Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell and redshirt sophomore Kaila Hulls emerged, each making 18 shots to cruise into the final round.

In a close race that came down to the last rack, Ferrell pulled out the title with 17 shots made to Hulls’ 13.

After freshman forward Lyndsay Leikem and senior guard Taylor Wayer took the two-ball competition with 40 points between them, the focus again turned to the Zeller family.

Word had already spread that Cody’s parents, Lorri and Steve, had decided to return to Assembly Hall for Hoosier Hysteria, even without their youngest son. But to Crean’s highest hopes, the Zellers made a much larger appearance Friday than they had in any previous Hoosier Hysteria.

As chairs were brought to the court before the dunk contest, they emerged from the stands as two of the judges as the crowd rose for a standing ovation.

“I think that was awesome for the crowd to respond to them like that,” Crean said. “It just shows what kind of legacy Cody is going to carry here at Indiana University.”

Freshman forward Devin Davis and sophomore forward Hanner Mosquera-Perea set themselves apart from teammates sophomore forward Jeremy Hollowell and freshman guard Stanford Robinson in the first round. The duo each threw down their own versions of the windmill that drew great responses from the crowd.

Both added his own flare in the second round.

Davis caught a bounce after starting behind the backboard and proceeded to slam it home, while Mosquera-Perea caught a rebound off the glass from Ferrell and dunked his and another ball in a single swoop.

But it was Davis who caught a toss from Sheehey, who was seated in the stands, and dunked it through for the victory in the finals.

In the team scrimmage, Hollowell got into a scoring rhythm for the White team early, reaching double figures while taking a shot nearly ever time down the court for a span, proving to Crean and fans that he hopes to be ready to play a more significant role this season.

Senior forward Will Sheehey added a spark to the Red team while down 19-18. He went on to score the game’s next eight points and ended in double figures as well as his squad of Robinson, graduate student guard Evan Gordon, Davis, sophomore center Peter Jurkin and senior forward Jeff Howard take the victory 40-28.

Although Indiana lost yet another freshman to an injury during the final five seconds of the scrimmage – Robinson is out indefinitely with a right knee injury - Crean said that the biggest hurdle to jump during the next several weeks before the start of the season is for his young squad to find out exactly what will define them on the court this year with just two players with major roles returning from last season.

“I think the biggest thing for us right now in the first week is we need to get some identity,” Crean said. “We’ve got to develop some personality. Some personality on the floor in the sense of the communication and in the sense of 50-50 balls and in the sense of really showing a competitive spirit and not just when we’re fresh and not just when it’s a scrimmage, but all those times.”

Follow reporter Nathan Brown on Twitter @nathan_brown10.